When Tottenham Hotspurs announced last month it was partnering with the Russian betting firm 1XBet for its sponsorship in Africa, nobody foresaw the fallout to come. The firm’s site, www.uk-1xbet.com, is fully licensed and legal, and permits gambling from the UK. It has since emerged, however, that in other jurisdictions the firm is allowing betting on illegal sports. Like cockfighting.
The Sun paper in the UK ran a full expose on the story, noting that links were available to sites offering bets on live streaming of children’s football matches, which is just as illegal as cockfighting. There seems to be some confusion as to how both UK punters and the Sun have managed to view content and place bets in the UK on a site seemingly designed for the Philippines; whether this was an internal glitch, basic oversight, or a deliberate act by an third party is not yet clear. If it’s found to have set up by 1XBet, the company could well find itself in line for a hefty fine. The UK Gambling Commission is currently investigating.
Whatever the outcome, it’s another black mark for the football industry and its relationship with betting sponsors, one made all the more ironic by the fact that Spurs badge features a cockerel upon it. The international 1xbet.com site now simply reads “This Web Site in not available in your country,” although the browser tab reads “eGaming License Suspended”. (I reached this is by clicking a Google link reading “Cockfight – 1XBet battlecock.”) The UK site itself is still up, with no trace of blood sports.
This is ultimately a matter of due diligence. Tottenham Hotspurs should have been much more conscious from day one as to what sorts of activities its betting sponsor took part in. Such activities being licensed and permitted in foreign countries does nothing to prevent them from being immoral and related to a cruel bloodsport which has been banned in the UK for 300 years. 1XBet have issued a statement to the effect that they only offer bets on action which is legal in each country in which it operates. All well and good, but this does nothing to address the moral issue. Basically, this partnership should never have taken place. With reasonable due diligence, it’s likely this would have been spotted before it happened, and this further spot of bad publicity for English football could have been avoided.
